Life full of ingenuity, design integrated into citizens’ life

Regarding the promotion of World Design Capital Taipei 2016 (WDC Taipei 2016), our core spirit lies in “social design.” We use design thinking to solve social problems that a city faces, and create a livable city through people-oriented design. Social design is one of the most important parts of Taipei development. Under limited resources, we make good use of design and creativity. With public interest as a prerequisite, we care about social issues, incorporate design into policies, and use design to solve social or local problems. If design equals the process of solving problems and creating infinite possibilities under limited resources, we will hope to let design become truly embedded in citizens' life. The city's residents can rediscover design playing a role in their everyday life in the real or virtual communities. As a result, design interacts with our society, thereby making our society better thanks to design.

Compared with other major cities concentrating on large construction projects, Taipei continues changing with design and is constantly carrying out innovative experiments. This symbolizes Taipei City's core appeal in hosting the WDC 2016: “Adaptive City – Design in Motion.” Design not only means visible hardware transformation, but also uses different fields of expertise to solve common problems by redesigning the collaborative system and relationship among people. Taipei will ultimately create more of its own stories. Through the WDC Taipei 2016 project, we need to reconsider the relationship between Taipei and the world. Taipei is no longer a manufacturing plant in the world, but a livable city with humanistic spirit. People around the world will be enchanted by Taipei, where restarts the elegance of humanistic spirit from Asia and allows its residents to participate in design and bring social change.

With the WDC Taipei 2016 approaching, we will hold a series of international signature events next year, including the New Year's Eve of Design, Design Gala, International Design House Exhibition, International Design Policy Conference, International Design Week Forum, Network of Cities Meeting, and Convocation Ceremony. Each event blends international and local features, and should not be missed!